Bernie Sanders Credit: Shutterstock
The Tampa Bay area is going to feel the Bern this month, when Vermont’s Independent Senator comes to Florida for a couple days of campaign rallies, including a Tampa stop alongside Florida lawmaker Angie Nixon.
On Saturday, Nixon’s campaign and Florida Young Democrats announced the Oct. 17 rally happening at the Cuban Club, calling Sanders’ visit “a HUGE fucking deal.”
“The big names are pulling up to the swamp because they KNOW Angie Nixon is the one. The momentum is REAL, and we’re just getting started,” the organization wrote.
Rally capacity for the courtyard at the famed Ybor City venue has not yet been announced, but the space once hosted more than 4,000 people for a Phoebe Bridgers concert in 2022.
A program schedule says doors open at 11 a.m., with speaking set to start at 1 p.m. There’s no cost to attend, but anyone who walks through the gates is supposed to RSVP.
It makes sense that the 85-year-old U.S. Senator, and one of modern American politics’ OG pro-worker lawmakers, is coming to Ybor City to boost the campaign of a 42-year-old woman who could be the future of a more people-centric Democratic party.
Ybor City’s history is rooted in worker-driven movements, where regular people joined labor unions to create better job conditions and founded mutual-aid societies that built infrastructure to ensure more people lived dignified lives that included healthcare. That history has been outlined in walking tours led by Tampa’s Democratic Socialists.
Nixon, who is running to unseat the unelected Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, joined the DSA last June, admitting that she does not agree with every tenant of the party’s platform.
Sanders will also join Nixon in Melbourne (Oct. 17), Gainesville (Oct. 18), and Tallahassee (Oct. 18). Last month, he committed $23 million from his campaign war chest to boost the Nixon campaign, which was outspent 16-to-1 in a Democratic primary contest against Lt. Col. Alex Vindman.
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This article appears in Oct. 08 – 14, 2026.
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